BARREL 2P Rate Counter: NaI Scintillator Diagnostics, 4 s Data

Rate counter measurements from the BARREL balloon mission studying electron losses from Earth's Radiation Belts. The data consists of 4-second accumulations of counts from NaI scintillator diagnostics, collected during campaigns from 2013 to 2016. The mission was a NASA Living with a Star Mission of Opportunity, launched from Antarctic and Swedish stations.

Use Cases

• Analyze electron precipitation rates based on 4-second count accumulations.
• Study spatial and temporal variations of electron losses from the radiation belts based on balloon array measurements.
• Characterize the spatial scale of precipitation at relativistic energies based on X-ray spectrometer data.
• Correlate precipitation events with in-situ plasma wave and particle measurements from the Van Allen Probes.

Strengths

• Data collected from over 50 stratospheric balloon launches across four campaigns.
• Measurements coordinated with the Van Allen Probes mission and other ground and space-based instruments.
• Provides balloon measurements of relativistic electron precipitation.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Rate count data have uncalibrated energy ranges and wrap near or above 16384 counts/s.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Measurements from rate counters on BARREL balloons.

Time Range

Campaigns conducted in 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 03:43:06.113555; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Balloon launches from Halley Bay and SANAE IV in Antarctica, and Esrange Space Center in Kiruna, Sweden.